Ideas for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage through Higher Education

From December 9 to 14, 2019, the Agora Conference Center in Bogota became the scene for the display of cultural expressions from Colombia and the world, as part of the celebration of the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).

As part of the program, on December 11, the parallel session «PCI y Universidades: retos y oportunidades en América y el Caribe» (Universities and ICH: challenges and opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean), organized by the UNESCO Montevideo office, the Centro Regional para la Salvaguardia del Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de América Latina CRESPIAL (Regional Center for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Latin America) and the Red de Cooperación Académica en Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial ReCA PCI LAC (Network of Academic Cooperation in Intangible Cultural Heritage) , occasion that served to discuss the role of higher education in the safeguarding of the ICH.

Susanner Schnuttgen, of UNESCO’s Living Heritage Entity; Weonmo Park, of the International Information and Network Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP); David Gómez, of CRESPIAL; Alfredo Torre, of the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), and Sara Maneiro, of the International Institute of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO-IESALC), participated. Information regarding the advances made in ICH by each of the instances they represent was shared, under the presentation and comments of María Frick (UNESCO Montevideo) and Mónica Guariglio (Network of Academic Cooperation in ICH of Latin America and the Caribbean, ReCA PCI LAC).

Some of the ideas that emerged from the meeting were the following: to strengthen the South-South cooperation, promote synergies, make the circulation of knowledge easier, contribute through the interchange of knowledge, and support the articulation between actors and networking.

The occasion was propitious for UNESCO-IESALC to resume its participation in the ReCa PCI LAC with a proposal to accompany the entities responsible for safeguarding the ICH through research, capacity development, technical cooperation, and consortia in advocacy. The proposed project sketched out possible strategic actions allined with the recommendations of the Action Plan of the III Regional Conference on Higher Education (CRES 2018) on ICH, specifically centered on cultural diversity and inter-culturality and on the role of higher education in the face of social challenges.